Steven Vaughan

Steven Vaughan researches the legal profession, corporate finance and environmental law. He spent almost a decade as a solicitor in the City of London advising multinational companies, governments, the UN and the World Bank.

As an academic, Steven has given advice to the European Parliament and worked with the British Standards Institute to develop the world’s first publicly accredited standard for companies on the regulation of nanotechnologies. In 2012, Steven gave a talk at the Hay Festival on controlling risks to the public from nanotechologies. A recording of his talk can be heard here on the Hay Festival website and downloaded as a podcast. He is currently an ESRC Future Research Leader, working on a funded 3 year project that explores the nature and extent of advice provided by corporate lawyers.

Steven is also the Director of Research for CEPLER, the Law School's Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research.

Explore the role and purpose of corporate lawyers, examining how they are regulated and the ethical challenges they face. Imagine you are a lawyer advising a client wanting to take over a large company. From your discussions with the client, you think it likely that, after they buy the company, several thousand of the company’s employees will be made redundant by your client. Such redundancies will be perfectly legal.